AlternC is a set of

open-source Open source is source code that is made freely available for possible modification and redistribution. Products include permission to use the source code, design documents, or content of the product. The open-source model is a decentralized sof ...

Web Hosting server management software for

Linux Linux ( or ) is a family of open-source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged as a Linux distribution, which ...

UNIX-like A Unix-like (sometimes referred to as UN*X or *nix) operating system is one that behaves in a manner similar to a Unix system, although not necessarily conforming to or being certified to any version of the Single UNIX Specification. A Unix-li ...

systems, whose aim is to promote self hosting by individuals or small structures, and provide its users with an easy web-based interface to manage a web and mail server (and other Internet-based services). Its main specificity is to provide its users with a non-technical web interface so that anybody can, without specific knowledge, host some web services. It also has some advanced options so that technical-savvy users can still fine-tune it. It also features documentation in French and English.

History

In 2000, the French free hosting provider Altern.org stopped its service after a complaint and a trial against

Estelle Hallyday Estelle may refer to: People * Estelle (given name), a female given name, including a list of people * Estelle (surname), a list of people * Estelle (musician), British singer/rapper Estelle Fanta Swaray (born 1980) * Princess Estelle, Duchess o ...

, effectively cutting down 47634 websites. Later, Valentin Lacambre gave his hosting control panel as free software, hoping that people will take it and be more independent of big hosting structures as his, in favor of free speech and alternative hosting. In May 2001, Valentin's source code was abandoned and a rewrite started by the technical team a
l’Autre Net
(a non-profit hosting provider organized in as self-managed association), which gave birth t
AlternC
which wanted to follow the same guidelines as Valentin's panel (mostly on usability and design). As of today, some non-profit hosting providers are using and developing that software suite: Lautre Net, the founder of that project, but als
Globenet
and other structures in Belgium, Québec and Africa. Some professional web hosting companies are also using AlternC and participate actively to the code, such a
OctopuceNeuronnexion
an
Webelys
A poll from 2010 estimated that at least 110 servers were running AlternC, having a total of 3500 accounts, hosting more than 9500 domain names, and 25000

POP Pop or POP may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Music * Pop music, a musical genre Artists * POP, a Japanese idol group now known as Gang Parade * Pop!, a UK pop group * Pop! featuring Angie Hart, an Australian band Albums * ''Pop'' (G ...

/ IMAP email accounts, with 2200 domain names and around thousand users fro
l’Autre Net
''(this poll was only counting people actively helping the project)'' This project is still actively developed.

Version numbering

After a long series of 0.9.preXX and 0.9.x versions, version 1.0 was published in June 2011, with a new web interface design, more current and usable. A paperback book, in French, was also published at that time, effectively making 2011 a milestone in this software history. The next version, released in February 2013, was version 3.0, mainly because some plugins were on different version numbers, and the development team wanted to make them coherent with the main software version (the Mailman plugin was version 2.1 already). Many new features and bugfixes where present in that version. The most notable one was the migration from '' Courier'' to '' Dovecot'' for the email service, and the separation, for security reasons, of all web hosting services using distincts

Unix Unix (; trademarked as UNIX) is a family of multitasking, multiuser computer operating systems that derive from the original AT&T Unix, whose development started in 1969 at the Bell Labs research center by Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, and ot ...

user accounts, thanks to the ITK module of the ''

Apache HTTP Server The Apache HTTP Server ( ) is a free and open-source cross-platform web server software, released under the terms of Apache License 2.0. Apache is developed and maintained by an open community of developers under the auspices of the Apache So ...

''. The latest versions of AlternC are: 3.1.10 (for Squeeze) / 3.2.10 (for Wheezy) / 3.3.10 (for Jessie) released on January 18, 2016, 3.1.9 (for Squeeze) / 3.2.9 (for Wheezy) released on November 17, 2015, 3.1.8 (for Squeeze) / 3.2.8 (for Wheezy) released on August 3, 2015

Features

* Domain name management *

DNS The Domain Name System (DNS) is a hierarchical and distributed naming system for computers, services, and other resources in the Internet or other Internet Protocol (IP) networks. It associates various information with domain names assigned to ...

management *

Subdomain In the Domain Name System (DNS) hierarchy, a subdomain is a domain that is a part of another (main) domain. For example, if a domain offered an online store as part of their website example.com, it might use the subdomain shop.example.com . Ov ...

creation * User account management *

Website A website (also written as a web site) is a collection of web pages and related content that is identified by a common domain name and published on at least one web server. Examples of notable websites are Google Search, Google, Facebook, Amaz ...

and

Web application A web application (or web app) is application software that is accessed using a web browser. Web applications are delivered on the World Wide Web to users with an active network connection. History In earlier computing models like client-serve ...

hosting *

Email Electronic mail (email or e-mail) is a method of exchanging messages ("mail") between people using electronic devices. Email was thus conceived as the electronic ( digital) version of, or counterpart to, mail, at a time when "mail" meant ...

hosting *

Mailing list A mailing list is a collection of names and addresses used by an individual or an organization to send material to multiple recipients. The term is often extended to include the people subscribed to such a list, so the group of subscribers is re ...

hosting * Online file manager * Security of the files and configuration * Website statistics AlternC is based on

Debian Debian (), also known as Debian GNU/Linux, is a Linux distribution composed of free and open-source software, developed by the community-supported Debian Project, which was established by Ian Murdock on August 16, 1993. The first version of D ...

, and is using the standard Debian packages, therefore it can be used with the same level of security as Debian, and its standard configuration tools. This allows a system administrator to manage a server with AlternC and other services in the same machine.

References

External links

*
Online Help

The developers' corner
(bug reports, milestones management, wiki pages etc.)
A demonstration server

{{WebManTools Web server management software Unix Internet software Web hosting Linux software Software using the GPL license Free software programmed in PHP

History

Version numbering

Features

See also

Bibliography

Other articles

References

External links